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Narrative Design | 2D Sprite Art | UI & UX Design
Moonlight Bar
Solo project | 4 months
ABOUT
This is a Visual Novel game, created with Ren'Py as a solo project.
In this game, you play as a bartender uncovering the secrets behind the murder of a man named Monroe, by taking advantage of his charm and conversation skills to piece the story together through the little slip ups the characters make.
See the
game's
itch page
here!
JUMP TO...
Narrative Design
What started out as a story beat flowchart turned into a 60 page dialogue script. Since this is a text-based game, the dialogue was the main game design problem
The script was formatted
in a way that could be easily pasted into Ren'Py with minimal editing
The script gave me an idea
of the characters in this game. I created basic character cards for each of the 3 suspects that I used as a basis for my visual designs
Each character was designed
to be distinct not just in personality, but in potential motives for the murder, in
order to make solving the case interesting and challenging
See the full script
Character Art
Each character got a
rough design, and then the final versions generally stayed close to that design
The challenge I faced
was the perspective of the characters sitting at a bar, behind the table but with their hands resting on the table
+ 8 different expressions and one extra pose
An important scene in the game received a custom CG image
I took extra care designing each expression and general body language of each character, because that is a big factor in much suspicion players will place on them
UI and UX Design
As part of a planned update, the game received a complete UI overhaul from the standard Ren'Py layout and style
This required a little
bit of scripting in Python, and many many buttons
After releasing the game,
I received some comments from players that it was difficult to reach the ending, and that character's reactions were too vague to know if they picked the correct dialogue choice
I spent some time making the game mechanics clear to players visually
Unhappy and Happy indicators
I also made gathering information easier by notifying when something new was learnt
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